


Hope

by Mithen



Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-11
Updated: 2010-01-11
Packaged: 2017-10-06 03:41:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/49272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mithen/pseuds/Mithen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bruce teaches Cass to read.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hope

"Hhhhh...hhh..."  Cass recognizes the "H," but the rest of the word is meaningless marks.  Her attempt to read it breaks down into mere frustrated noises.  "Hhh!"  She contemplates throwing the book across the room, but remembers the look on Alfred's face the last time she did that and restrains herself.

"Focus, Cass."  Bruce's voice is calm and his body isn't frustrated.  "The next letter.  Look at its shape."

The next letter is a circle, but Cass can't figure out what sound a circle could have.  Letters don't have body language she can read.  She pounds the table with her fists.  "I can't!"

Bruce sits back a little, his posture thoughtful.  His eyebrows tilt up in a way that indicates he's remembering something.  "I felt the same way when I started learning Kryptonian.  It was all squiggles and none of it made sense. I threw one of Kal's crystals into the depths of the cave once."  He chuckles slightly.  "Had to rappel down and get the damn thing back.  Felt like an idiot."  The undertones of his laugh are rueful and sympathetic, and Cass realizes with a shock he's talking about a _recent_ memory. 

This is a revelation to her, that Bruce could still be frustrated by knowledge.  In her mind he is a perfected work of art, an obelisk of chiseled danger;  now she realizes there might still be unfinished places.  "You still...learn things?"

The shift in his shoulders indicates surprise.  "Of course I am!  I'm still learning, every day.  We're all still learning.  It never stops.  It never stops," he repeats, and for a moment joy touches his face.

"Oh," she says, startled.  Then she looks down at the word with the sound still on her lips and sees the circle, feels it on her mouth. 

She can read the word.  "Hope," she says softly. 

Bruce's satisfaction radiates from him.  "Good work," he says.


End file.
